Local ISPs appear to be the target of the latest round of phishing emails. Recipients are asked to "verify" their account details by returning IDs and passwords along with other personal information, and even input the scrambled text of a security image.

As a phishing scam it's pretty clumsy. The English is bad, ("Verify Your Account now To Avoid It Closed"), they ask for distinctly non-Kiwi stuff like your Zip Code, and even though -- in my case -- the message appeared to come from "Customerservice@Paradise.net.nz", the return address is listed as customerserviceinfos@gmail.com.

On the other hand, it was an ostensible Paradise message targeted at a genuine Paradise user, and also incorporated Paradise logos. Some newcomers and email innocents may in fact be fooled. (If you have been, contact your ISP immediately, and at the very least change your password!)

It also contained one or two elements that suggest a degree of phishing sophistication, (no, I'm not going to be more specific). So in an effort to thwart the baddies, I filed a complaint with Google that one of their Gmail accounts was being abused. Hopefully they'll pull it before too much damage is done.

Have other local ISPs been targeted? Let me know. Post a comment.